Shake the Dust Off |

By Gregory Meyer
May 6, 2016

I have a confession to make, when Tim asked me to join the Children of the Wells project, I almost told him no. When I read his texts, I mentally fought with myself from declining the offer. I was in a bad place mentally at the time, and I didn’t know if I had it in me to try writing for someone again.

Shaking the old ash off.
From Dark Souls 3 and wallpapersbye.com

Back in 2010, before all of this, I had just come home from a trip to my University for my wife’s graduation. I was an inexperienced writer at the time, and I was in high spirits, having finished a cartoon script for a class that my tough to impress professor genuinely found funny. While in Virginia Beach, a filmmaking couple my wife and I were friends with asked if I’d be interested in writing a screenplay for them about zombies. I worked with the couple previously on a short story script that had been received well, and I jumped at the chance to write a script that had the potential to be made into a feature length film. My eyes had stars in them, and I thought I was on my way to success. After all, when you’re presented with a grand opportunity on a silver platter like this, how can you say no?

There was just one catch, though. While I enjoy creepy stories, I don’t like zombies. Never have, never will. Just ask my wife how I am when she watches The Walking Dead on TV, I’m out of the room faster than you can say “Brains” or “S.T.A.R.S.” for you Resident Evil fans. But this was going to be an MST3K-style movie, so I thought. I could write a silly movie with zombies getting hacked to death by a guitar wielding drifter with a heart of gold.

I struggled in front of my Word document, writing, erasing, and trying again. I even watched Shaun of the Dead as inspiration, trying to jumpstart my creativity. Eventually, after weeks of creative agony, I had a treatment for a story I felt I could get behind. I sent the story to the couple and waited for a response. The one I got back wasn’t good. The movie was too silly, and the project needed to be something that would end up on MST3K, rather than the comedy I wrote. I felt absolutely deflated, and the thought of starting over crushed me. I crawled away from the project like a coward, not even bothering to contact them again for the project, something that I’m still ashamed of to this day.

Then, in 2012, I wrote the treatment for my final project at school, a story set in a world I’ve been building since 2010. The feedback I received from my professors on the project was mixed, so I thought I’d start over with something I felt would be better. I ran into the same issue as the zombie treatment. Write, stop, delete, and begin the process over again. I was a mess, and by October 2012, I didn’t know if I even wanted to write again. My head wasn’t in writing anymore, and I felt like my life’s dream of being a writer was crumbling beneath me. I took a sabbatical from writing until I felt my head was clear enough to try again.

When 2013 began, I decided to make things right. I wrote an apology to the couple behind the zombie story and made amends. It was embarrassing for me, but I knew with that still hanging over my head, I needed to resolve it if I wanted to make this year a turning point. They graciously accepted my apology, and the dark cloud lifted from my spirit. I dove into my final project that fall, and after a few setbacks, I finished the behemoth that stood in my way.

Now there was the Children of the Wells offer that Tim had sent me. To be honest, I was terrified at the prospect. Having failed friends before, I didn’t want to do the same to the Children of the Wells writers, and especially to Tim. Tim was my closest friend I had made while in Virginia Beach, and I would have a hard time forgiving myself if I failed to deliver a story to him.

However, I was a stronger writer after the ordeal I went through in the past four years. If I said no to every project that went my way because of my previous failures, I’d never grow as a writer. There are challenges in life that I must face, and even if I fail, I have to get up and try again. Everyone experiences failure one way or another, and I had to accept this. So with some apprehension, I joined the project and began a new challenge: writing my very first novel.

It wasn’t easy, but I’m glad I did it. I poured a year and a half into this book, and I’m proud of what I accomplished. I’m no longer bound by my failures from my past, and I’ve shaken the dust off of me. My failures and successes have made me who I am, and they make who you are. Move forward, and never give up, because the end might be right around the corner.